Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/15

 DENBIGHSHIRE DENDERMONDE surrendered to the parliamentarians by order of the king. A great part of its defences was blown up after the restoration. DENBIGHSHIRE, a maritime county of North Wales, bounded N. by the Irish sea, and bor- dering on England ; area, 603 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 104,266. Its surface is much diversified ; there are some level tracts in the north, but along the E. and W. borders extend mountain ridges. The principal rivers are the Conway, Dee, and Clwyd, none of which are navigable within its borders. The valleys and level tracts are remarkably fertile, producing grain, beans, and peas ; the uplands yield some crops of bar- ley, oats, and potatoes, but are mostly occupied by pastures ; cattle, sheep, and goats are reared in great numbers, and excellent cheese is made. Among the minerals are coal and iron, both very valuable, lead, slate, freestone, and mill- stone. Immense quantities of limestone, used for fluxing ironstone, are exported into Stafford- shire, and the yield of one quarry, near Llan- gollen, is said to be sometimes between 70,- 000 and 100,000 tons in a single year. The. county has no seaport, and its chief channel of transportation is the Chester and Holyhead railway, which crosses it near the coast. The Chester and Shrewsbury railway runs S. about 14 m., just within its E. boundary. A branch of the Ellesmere canal tra- verses the vale of Llan- gollen. The chief towns are Denbigh, Ruthin, and Wrexham. Before the Roman conquest Denbighshire was the territory of the Ordo- vices, and it was annexed to the empire only after long struggles. It contains several inter- esting Roman remains. It was the scene of many fierce contests under the Saxons and the Normans, in the wars of the Roses, and in the revolution of the 17th century. DENDERAH (anc. Tenfyra), a ruined town of Upper Egypt, near the left bank of the Nile, in lat. 26 10' N., Ion. 32 37' E., 40 in. E. S. E. of Girgeh. Its antiquities are among the most interesting and complete in Egypt. The prin- cipal building is a magnificent temple, enclosed with some other edifices, in a space 1,000 ft. square, by a wall of sun-dried brick, 15 ft. thick and 35 ft. high. It was dedicated to the god- dess Athor or Aphrodite, or, as some believe, to Isis. A richly sculptured gateway faces it in the enclosing wall, on which the emperors Domitian and Trajan, whose names occur in accompanying inscriptions, are represented in the act of worship. The portico of the temple is 135 ft. wide, and has 24 columns arranged four deep, each 32 ft. high and nearly 22 ft. in circumference. The capitals have a full face of the presiding divinity on each of their four sides ; the architrave is covered like the portal with sculptures representing a religious pro- cession, and the projecting fillet of the cornice bears an inscription in Greek setting forth that the portico was added to the temple in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, in honor of the god- dess Aphrodite. On the ceiling of the portico is the famous basso-rilievo, at first supposed to represent the signs of the zodiac and to be of very remote antiquity, discovered in 1799 by the French savants under Bonaparte ; and on the ceiling of one of the inner chambers was a small and somewhat similar planisphere, which was removed to Paris in 1821. But the supposed zodiac lacks the sign of Cancer, and all scholars are now agreed that it is not older Ruins at Denderah. than the Ptolemies, and that a zodiac was not used under the Pharaohs. In the portico or on the front of the temple may be distin- guished the names of Augustus, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Ptolemy Cassation, and his mother Cleopatra. The last two are also rep- resented by rude portraits. The interior con- sists of three large halls, an isolated sanctuary, and several small chambers. Rows of columns stand in some of the rooms, displaying on their capitals the budding lotus, and all the apart- ments but two are profusely sculptured. The roof is flat and formed of oblong masses of stone. Small holes cut in the ceiling or sides admitted the light, and some of the rooms on the ground floor were lighted only by the few rays which found their way through apertures communicating with the rooms above. There are two smaller temples of Roman date near that of Athor, one dedicated to Isis. DENDERMONDE, or Termonde, a town of Bel- gium, in the province of East Flanders, at the